Happy Halloween!

How lucky were we to stumble across a PINK witch costume for Lauren?

I couldn't have planned it better if I had tried.

Ella, on the other hand, was a bit of challenge.

I can barely keep her clothed (which is why she is typically NOT pictured in many of our Twelve Days of Halloween photos)....I wasn't sure how I was going to convince her to wear a costume.  After several stores and dozens of attempts at finding something I could bribe her to wear, our friend brought by a purple dragon costume to see what Ella thought of it.

It was DESTINY.

Ella has worn the costume everyday since whether she needed to or not. 

We did some Trunk-or-Treating this year at our church.  In the RAIN.  

That would be SEATTLE RAIN for our Utah friends who thought they got rained on as well.

In true Seattle fashion, it didn't slow anyone down.

Not even me because I had my MONSTER TRUCK to keep me company.

Donuts, cider, and hot chocolate are traditions at the Trunk-or-Treat.

And yes, that donut was bigger than Lauren's head.

OH! And in keeping with the rest of the tradition, our guest list today included a GARGOYLE friend...

...or at least six of his tongues. 

 Hope your Halloween was delightfully exhausting too!

Twas the Night Before Halloween...

...and our house was a buzz 

with the most Halloween excitement that there ever was.  

Enough corny rhyming.  Let's just get to the good stuff...

Today we invited our local 

WITCH DOCTOR 

over for lunch, and he brought his collection of

 SHRUNKEN HEADS.  

Too cool. 

 

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN EvE to YoU!

Two Days 'Til Halloween

We had SPOOKS visit us this afternoon!!

I highly recommend them as they are fun, easy guests.  

Click here to find out how they can come to your house too.

Lauren's spooks are in the front row.  

Ella's are drowning in the upper right hand corner.

This One's For the Ghouls...

Three days left and I have some amazing pictures for this one. I am the Activity Day leader at church ("Activity Days" are the 8-11 year old girls in our area).  Last night we had a fun activity with the "ghouls" and ended it with Halloween cupcake decorating.  My post today is of their beautiful "ghouly" cupcakes.  Two of the "ghouls" even offered to decorate cupcakes for Lauren and Ella.  So these amazingly spooky creations became breakfast this morning (well, breakfast dessert).  Can you believe so many toppings fit on a single cupcake?!?!?

Nice job, ghouls!

Four Days Left...

...and some ghastly grub monsters came for dinner.  

My own little grub monsters couldn't wait to dive in:

Yum.

Day Five is for the Swamp Creatures

Today was the day we invited swamp creatures to eat with us.  

I only got one shot of them at the dinner table before Ella found them.  

So sorry swamp friends.  

I couldn't replace their eyeballs fast enough....soon this was all that was left:

So I thought I'd give it another go with "Grandma Swampie" in her bright red lipstick and onion ring glasses.  

Cool.  Except her eyeballs went missing too.  

Six Days and Counting...

One of Ella's favorite things to do is pretend she is a dog.  Her favorite pastime as a dog is to lick your face.  Russ doesn't get grossed out by much of anything, but this gets him every time.  Ella also likes the element of surprise when she licks your face.  Apparently it was too much for our dinner guest tonight.

With only six days left until Halloween, we invited a SKELETON to dine with us.  The puppy dog in Ella got the best of her and she delivered a big slobbery lick to the skeleton (what dog could resist those juicy bones?).  Anyway, the skeleton collapsed in fright and, seeing how we couldn't revive him, we just ate him.  Yum.

Check out the bony fingers we had for dessert.  These awesome fingers were actually made by our friend Emily. They went perfectly with our dinner.  Thanks Emily!

Lucky Number Seven

We just finished some late afternoon FINE dining with our little monster friends.  Cute, aren't they?

Personally, these guys are my top pick of guests...except that they tend to drool a lot.  Lauren thought they looked funny bald, so she made hers a toupee.  So thoughtful.

Lauren and I topped off our dinner with some homemade sugar cookies.  Our friend Cassandra made the dough and the frosting, and Lauren and I baked and decorated them.  The cookies were amazing (thanks to Cassandra)!  Here are some snaps of Lauren frosting the cookies...or her tongue.

Eight, Eight, Eight!

With eight days left until Halloween, we decided to invite over our eight-legged friends to dine with us.  If you've ever had spiders over for dinner, you may know that they are very picky eaters...not big fans of vegetables, fruits, grains, casseroles, or anything except bugs.  Not to worry though, I found a "spider web trap" full of preserved bugs that I whipped up into a nice dish for our meal:

The girls must be part spider because they loved the bugs...even after I told them what they were!  Lauren thought it was so cool, she even gave our spider friend a big kiss:

Day Nine ended with a little cackle...

What fun we had tonight when the witches of the Northwest stopped by for a Halloween treat:

Ten Days 'til Halloween...

...and to celebrate, we had dinner with the Mummies.  

I especially like their creepy yellow glowing eyes.

Lauren was excited about the dinner guests and thought it would be appropriate to dress for the occasion:

This mummy has some nice dance moves too:

Eleven Days and Counting...

 The Halloween countdown continued today as a family of ghosts joined us for dinner.  

Lauren was SO excited when she saw the "ghost-es" waiting at the table for her.  She promptly informed me that she really, really, REALLY likes ghosts. 

 Ella on the other hand, only likes to pull out their eyeballs.  Go figure.

Thanks, Kraft, for the idea.  

Twelve Days 'til Halloween

Our annual tradition of the "Twelve Days of Halloween" has officially begun.  You can click here for a glimpse of last year's festivities.  I love this tradition so much I'm contemplating making it a SEMI-annual event and celebrating Halloween in April as well.

Anyway, this year I booked a variety of Halloween dinner guests to help us celebrate.  For opening night, I thought who better to come celebrate with us then the Great Pumpkin himself?

And, of course, we couldn't have the Great Pumpkin without a Charlie Brown....or two.

Well, the Great Pumpkin arrived with his head bubbling over with dinner ideas for his Halloween buddies.  In fact, his head was literally bubbling over with our dinner for the night.  So convenient. 

The Great Pumpkin was very well behaved and had excellent table manners.  I just hope the rest of the guest list is as golden.

Stay tuned...